1.4 The Principle of Life
Organic and Inorganic Beings
Organic beings possess an inner source of activity that gives them life. They are born, grow, reproduce, and die. Their structure includes organs fitted to the various functions required for life, adaptation, and self-preservation. Human beings, animals, and plants all belong to this category.
Inorganic beings have neither vitality nor self-generated movement. They are formed only by the aggregation of matter. Minerals, water, and air are examples of this order of existence.
The material elements that compose both organic and inorganic bodies are united by the same force: the law of attraction. In that respect, nature follows a common principle throughout. The difference does not lie in a separate kind of matter. Matter remains fundamentally the same, but in organic bodies it is animalized.
The Vital Principle
The animalization of matter results from its union with the vital principle. Life appears through this union. The vital principle acts upon matter, and life is the effect produced by that action.
Taken by itself, the agent is not life; without matter, it does not produce a living being. Matter by itself is also not alive. Life arises only when the two are joined. The vital principle gives life to beings capable of absorbing and assimilating it.
Although spirit and matter are the two universal elements, the vital principle is also necessary in the constitution of living beings. Yet it is not a separate primitive principle standing alongside spirit and matter in an absolute sense. Its origin lies in modifications of universal matter. It may be regarded as an element in the way one speaks of oxygen or hydrogen, though such elements are themselves derived from a deeper unity.
Vitality, then, does not come from an independent primitive source. It results from a special property of universal matter after certain modifications have taken place.
The Source and Function of Vitality
The source of the vital principle is in the universal fluid. It is associated with what has been called the magnetic fluid or the animalized electric fluid. In this role, it serves as an intermediary, a link between spirit and matter.
The vital principle is the same in all organic beings, though modified according to each species. Through these modifications, each kind of living being receives the capacity to move and act according to its nature. This principle distinguishes living beings from inert matter. Matter may be moved, but movement alone is not life. Inert matter does not produce movement from itself.
Vitality is not a permanent attribute existing in full independence from bodily organization. It develops only as the body develops. The union of organized matter and the vital principle is necessary for life to appear.
When the vital principle is not united with a body, vitality may be understood as remaining in a latent state. It exists as potential, not as active life.
Organs and the Motive Force of Life
The organs of a living being form a kind of mechanism set in motion by the inner activity of the vital principle residing within them. This principle is the motive force of organic bodies.
It gives impulse to the organs, and the action of the organs in turn maintains and develops the vital principle. Their relationship is reciprocal. Life is sustained by this ongoing interaction, somewhat as friction generates heat.
Living organization, therefore, is neither a mere arrangement of matter nor the action of an isolated force. It is the result of a dynamic union: matter organized for life, animated by the vital principle, and maintained through the continuous cooperation of both.
Life and Death
Death in organic beings results from the wearing out of their organs.
The body may be compared to a machine. When a machine is badly assembled, it breaks down; when the body becomes diseased or its essential structures fail, life departs. This comparison is useful so long as it is not taken too narrowly, because no single organ alone explains the whole mystery of life.
The heart appears especially linked to death because it is one of the body’s essential organs and plays a central role in sustaining organic activity. Yet it is not the only organ whose injury can bring life to an end. Death may follow from damage to any part whose function is indispensable to the harmony of the whole organism.
After death, the material elements of the body do not vanish. Inert matter decomposes and enters into new combinations, becoming part of other beings. The vital principle, however, does not remain attached to the corpse. It returns to the universal vital source from which living beings draw the force of life and activity.
This continual exchange gives organic life its place within a wider order. Bodies are formed from matter already used before and destined to be used again. Living beings draw the principle of vitality from a common reservoir, absorb and assimilate it for a time, and restore it once their own organic existence has ceased.
The Action of the Vital Fluid
The organs are permeated by vital fluid, which allows the different parts of the body to communicate actively with one another. Through this reciprocal action, functions can sometimes be maintained or even restored after temporary disturbance. As long as the essential elements of the organism remain sufficiently intact, the vital fluid can continue transmitting the movement that sustains life.
When those essential elements are destroyed or profoundly altered, this transmission can no longer occur. The organs then lose the coordinated activity that depended on their mutual harmony, and the organism dies.
Life, therefore, depends not only on the presence of organs, but on their agreement and cooperation as a whole. When this harmony is broken, bodily functions cease, much as the movement of a mechanism stops when its key parts are worn out or broken. A clock no longer runs when the force that drives it can no longer act through its structure; likewise, the body no longer lives when the principle of activity can no longer operate through its organs.
An Image Drawn from Electricity
A clearer comparison may be found in an electrical device. Such a device receives electricity and holds it in a latent state, as bodies in nature hold the principle necessary for life. The electrical phenomenon appears only when that fluid is set in motion by an appropriate cause. In the same way, life appears when the vital fluid is active within the organism.
When the cause of the activity ceases, the visible phenomenon also ceases. The device returns to inertia; so too does the body when the action of the vital fluid comes to an end. Organic beings may thus be understood as bodies in which the activity of the vital fluid produces the phenomenon of life, and in which the cessation of that activity produces death.
Differences in Vital Force
The quantity of vital fluid is not the same in all organic beings. It varies from species to species, and it is not even constant in the same individual or among individuals of the same species. Some are, as it were, richly supplied with it, while others possess only a smaller amount.
From this come noticeable differences in vitality. In some beings, life is more active, more vigorous, and more abundant. In others, it is weaker and less energetic. Vital force can also become exhausted. If it is not renewed through the absorption and assimilation of substances that contain it, it may become insufficient to maintain life.
Transmission of Vital Fluid
Vital fluid may also be transmitted from one individual to another. Those who possess it in greater abundance can give some of it to those who have less. In certain cases, this assistance can revive a life that is close to being extinguished.
Life and death, then, are linked to the condition of the organs, the harmony of their functions, and the presence and action of the vital principle through the vital fluid. Matter is continually transformed, the vital principle returns to its source, and organic existence unfolds within a universal circulation of life.
Intelligence and Instinct
Intelligence is not an attribute of the vital principle.
A living thing may possess life without possessing thought. Plants live, but they do not think; they have organic life only. Vitality and intelligence are therefore not the same. Matter and intelligence are also independent of one another. A body may be alive and still lack intelligence, while intelligence, in embodied beings, is expressed through material organs. In animalized matter, intelligence appears through its union with spirit.
Intelligence is a special faculty belonging only to certain classes of organic beings. By it, they possess thought, the power to will and act, and awareness of their own existence and individuality. It also gives them the means of relating to the external world and providing for their needs.
From this, three broad kinds of beings may be distinguished.
1. Inanimate beings
These are formed of matter alone, without vitality and without intelligence. Mineral bodies belong to this class.
2. Animate, non-thinking beings
These are formed of matter and endowed with vitality, but not with intelligence.
3. Animate beings possessed of an intelligent principle
These are formed of matter, endowed with vitality, and possessed of an intelligent principle that gives them the ability to think.
The Source of Intelligence
The source of intelligence is universal intelligence.
Yet it should not be imagined too simply, as though each intelligent being merely drew off a portion of intelligence from a common reservoir in the same way that living beings draw the vital principle from a common source. That comparison is only approximate. Intelligence is a faculty proper to each being and constitutes its mental individuality.
Its deepest origin belongs among the realities not yet fully open to human understanding.
Instinct and Intelligence
Instinct is not something wholly separate from intelligence. It is a type of intelligence: non-reasoning intelligence, through which beings provide for their own needs.
No absolute line can be drawn between instinct and intelligence, because the two are often mingled. Even so, their expressions can be distinguished. Some actions belong mainly to instinct; others clearly belong to intelligence.
Instinct may be understood as a rudimentary intelligence. It differs from intelligence properly so called in that its manifestations are almost always spontaneous, while the acts of intelligence arise from thought and deliberate intention.
Instinct, Reason, and Freedom
It is not correct to suppose that instinct disappears as intellectual faculties develop. Instinct always remains present, though human beings often neglect it.
Instinct can lead toward the good. It almost always guides rightly, and at times more surely than reason. It does not err.
Reason would likewise be an unfailing guide if it were not so often distorted by pride, selfishness, and poor education. Instinct does not reason; reason, on the other hand, involves choice and gives human beings the exercise of free will.
For that reason, instinct and reason do not oppose one another simply as lower and higher powers. Instinct acts directly and spontaneously. Reason judges, compares, and chooses. Where reason is sound, it can elevate action; where it is corrupted, it can mislead. Instinct remains a steady natural guide, while reason introduces freedom and responsibility.
The Varieties of Instinct
Instinct manifests itself differently according to species and according to the needs proper to each one.
In beings that possess consciousness and awareness of the external world, instinct joins itself to intelligence—that is, to will and freedom. In such beings, life is not governed by blind impulse alone. Instinct still operates, but it works together with the developing powers of thought, choice, and self-direction.